Marilyn+BenderLBF

Survey data was reviewed and comments sorted into common themes. The focus of the analysis was the specific descriptions reponsdents provided of both fun and boring learning activities. People of all ages seem to describe themselves as having a natural willingness and ability to be playfully engaged in learning that is of interest to them. This playful engagement can be quickly ignited or extinguished by the emotional investment of the instructor, the nature of the activity, and how a person comes to perceive the relevance or reward for his or her efforts. It seems that what makes learning fun is similar to what makes any game fun. There is not much emotional or physical investment and therefore not much fun passively watching someone else play a game by himself such as listening quietly to a lecture by an uninspiring instructor. Its not much fun to play a difficult game where game pieces are missing, rules are confusing and the chances of winning are slim such as with an unorganized learning activity with unclear instructions and content that is too difficult to understand or learning goals that are too difficult to achieve. People have fun learning when they are actively involved, emotionally and/or physically engaged and motivated by appropriate challenge, relevance and perceived intrinsic reward. 1) **What is apparent in the respondent’s ratings about the nature of their experiences is that fun learning is active and boring learning is passive.** Participant described learning activities as fun when they were expected to be actively engaged in the learning experience by listening, watching, interacting, performing or presenting, remembering, and thinking creatively or critically. Participants described learning activities as boring when they were expected to listen, watch, sit still and remember and when they were not expected to interact with others, move around, perform or think. **2) Students are more likely to rate a learning experience as fun when they can relate to and interact with an instructor whom they feel is passionate, enthusiastic and competent**. Respondents liked instructors who were energetic and seemed to love what they were doing. A good instructor’s enthusiasm and passion for the topic is contagious, motivates the learner and helps make the activity fun. Comments described likable, fun instructors as “interesting and therefore made me excited as well.” “Good presenter, good speaker, lively, funny, competent, well-prepared…transferred his enthusiasm to students.” “…was a vivacious, passionate, informative and organized instructor.” “The instructor was warm, friendly and enthusiastic.” “The instructor was animated, excited about the topic.” “…instructor was energetic and enthusiastic about material and interactive with students.” “He cared about his audience.” “…mainly his intelligence, critical thinking, and fantastic sense of humor...and that he always let everyone talk and contribute anything they had to say, which also made the class laugh and love to be there.” “The man was animated. He was really into what he was teaching.” **5) Boring instructors zap the fun out of learning by failing to prepare and organize engaging learning activities and the learning environment. **It is not fun to attend classes with an instructor who is not prepared or effective at teaching. Students experience frustration and boredom with learning due to poor organization of learning activities, materials or the environment. “The instructor was unconcerned with people comfort. Additionally, she was making corrections to the syllabi (dates and assignments) which seemed disrespectful since those changes probably should have been made prior to the copying and distributing.” “… it was the whole environment… lecture and instructor were not exciting, too many people and things going on to try and focus on the monotony of the course.” “The whole thing was a bad experience. The timing, the facility, the presentation and the method of presentation. I as well as others were distracted and not interested. There were also, no handouts or notes to follow.” “The projected material was in too small a font and difficult to read from my location.” “I found it annoying because the instructor did not have a quick pace with a clear agenda. When the students were directed to complete a task, there wasn't ample directions and this made me not want to listen to this particular instructor.” “…also, her way of providing a visual aid was also ineffective. Handouts were poor and too technical. Did not know what I was expected to learn.” 6) **The types of learning experiences respondents perceived as fun were active, interactive and stimulated creativity, thinking and the right amount of challenging.** There were no mentions of fun lectures in the data. Instead, respondents favored hands-on activities, interacting with other classmates, moving around and participating in discussions. They were engaged by having “time to learn at own pace….not have to worry about what everyone else was doing.” “There were many opportunities to share thoughts about what you'd just heard - the give and take of the discussion.” “Applied learning immediately and controlled the pace. It was exciting to talk to the other people sitting around me to figure out different strategies. We could talk with the presenter to ask questions, brainstorm, and have her check our strategies.” “There were a number of instances in which we had to brainstorm or work together to find answers.” **7) The types of learning experience respondents perceived as boring lacked interaction and the stimulation of thought or discussion.** No one seemed to appreciate a well organized lecture. Being talked at was the most mentioned reason for rating an activity boring. Respondents descriptions of boring learning activities included, “The experience was so boring because it was all lecture and nothing else. There was no interaction with fellow students or little class discussion.” “There was insufficient interaction between students, teacher, and material being taught.” “I had to sit still for almost an hour without talking and moving.” “It was far from interactive and the method of delivery did not deviate one bit from one section to the next.” “The boredom arose from lack of interaction or mental stimulation. A drone delivery from the recorded online speaker and no critical thinking on my part made for a boring experience.” **10)** **A learner’s lack of motivation to learn a topic is hard to overcome even for the most engaging instructor or experience.** Motivation to learn is scarce when learners don’t value the learning or find it relevant to their needs. Comments indicating learning was a boring waste of time included, “I did not relate to the material at all, and the presenter didn't make the material relevant or interesting.” “…it didn't apply to my career or was helpful.” “The training was mandatory for all employees even though there were many people who probably didn't need it.” “It was nothing I could relate to. The Professor spoke as if the information was already familiar to the class and did not try to relate it in a way that would have relevance to real life experiences.” “The workshop was directed to a novice audience. I was not a novice.” “I was not interested in any of the workshop topics. I hated having to attend these one-day workshops each year because I never learned anything new. It was definitely un-motivating for me, and I had a negative attitude.” “Because I already know what we're learning about, but it's mandatory to take the class." As an instructional designer of mandatory e-learning courses I understand and can relate to the pain and frustration reflected in the comments about passive experiences with non-valued topics. I work with course owners who “lecture” in the presentations that I am tasked with assembling into engaging courses. I have won a few battles convincing some to attempt to engage the learners with problems, stories, and activities, but it is very difficult to help them move their thinking from presenting to teaching in the online material. The fact that programs are mandatory makes it even more challenging to capture and keep the learners’ attention. Thinking of my audience as playful and curious and focusing on their felt needs should provide the motivation I need to build fun into online mandatory courses.
 * Executive Summary **
 * 3) ** **Boring instructors can zap the fun out of any learning activity even for the most motivated and playful learners**. Boring lessons are taught by boring instructors. What makes an instructor boring is his or her demeanor, lack of enthusiasm, creativity and willingness or ability to relate to and interact with the learners. Boring instructors were described as follows. “The teacher was monotone, not very engaging, there was no interaction with the teacher.” “Specifically I believe that the reason was the Instructor who, though obviously very intelligent, lacked the skills needed to capture interest of the students in the lecture.” “The instructor for the course was arrogant and unwilling to listen to reason…I think that her attitude made me quite uninterested in what she had to say.” “She was authoritarian… I had no respect for her and felt I couldn't learn anything from her, based mostly on her demeanor.” “…a sense that we were really not that important and that critical thought on our part was probably an imposition on the teacher in his view. The solicitation of comments was really not sincere. Rather, we were to just sit there, shut up and take notes for the next exam.” “The instructor lacked energy or interest in the course. He often seemed to tired to teach.”
 * 4) ** **Engaging, fun and likeable instructors use a variety of well planned, organized and interactive activities in a safe learning environment.** Respondents described fun instructors to be great facilitators, using well planned exercises. He or she encourages interaction and sharing, uses humor to gain attention, and engages learners in hands-on experiences. These instructors used more two-way dialogue than lecturing. Comments from respondents included, “the instructor was informal and interacted both on group and individual levels.” “There were clear schedules which helped make the day go by faster. There were breaks provided as well as time just to stand up and get the blood moving.” “There was a variety of group projects and activities.” “The instructor was approachable and organized and kept us on schedule.” “It was well-run in terms of setting out expectations, staying on track, having all supplies and materials ready.” “The instructor let us relate the content to something we were interested in, she had high expectations of us and believed in us, she used all different methods for learning (seeing, hearing, doing) and didn't confine us, either to the classroom space, or to the types of ideas we had.” “The environment was playful and safe. “…sharing without judgment or criticism.” “…social, collaborative, comfort/safety in expressing opinion without recourse.”
 * 8) ** **Learning was fun that was challenging** such as when there “was a problem to solve.” “There was an outcome that needed to be resolved.” “We got to compete, use our knowledge, perform in front of the class, plan as a group, talk a lot, move around, and teach ourselves.” “We were being creative, imaginative, analyzing concepts and theories and discussing with peers. It was challenging.” “We had hands on experience with the thrill of the hunt and had to think very hard about how we should behave in order to survive.
 * 9) ** **People are better able to become engaged in a learning experience if they are interested in a topic, feel it is relevant to their interests or needs and believe they can achieve something or otherwise benefit in some way from the experience.** If the learner is motivated to participate and the instructor and the activities are engaging, then the learning can be fun. Respondents commented on fun learning to include, “work was based on real live organizational events…working with actual employees of that organization. The outcome was very practical and realistic.” “… was interested in the topic.” “Relevant topic – topic related to me now and something I needed to know and wanted to learn.” “I had a keen interest in learning the material.” “It was the exhilaration of learning something new and realizing that I really could do it.” “A sense of personal accomplishment and moving towards a goal.” “It was something I was interested in doing. I was excited about the possibilities of learning this skill.” “The class was fun because it was a personal interest class. There was no pressure to take it and no grades to proceed it. This was something that I wanted to learn.”
 * Implications for instruction and learning design: **